I Can't Make This Stuff Up

Image from the Yucatan Times (linked)

This morning Jessie pointed a beetle out to me that was hanging around by our front door. He was a cool white and black color, and I had never seen an insect like him before so I looked him up on the web. I found out he's called an Ironclad beetle and is in the Zopherus family (Zopherus nodulosus). In the Yucatan, Zopherus beetles are adorned with little rhinestones and a chain and worn as living brooches. Apparently there is a Mayan legend about a princess and a beetle that is the basis for the custom, but wearing the beetles as ma'kech (the Mayan name for the beetle brooch) might not date back in practice further than the 1980's. I think I remember my mother telling me about girls in the 50's wearing what they called chameleons but were probably green anoles as brooches. The Internet is further littered with stories of women wearing real chameleons throughout the ages. I even found citations for women wearing live, giant hissing cockroaches from Madagascar as jewelry. That one freaked me out so badly I stopped looking for more instances.

That little excursion into the weird corners of the web epitomizes my day perfectly. It was a lovely little blend of the surreal and banal, and I made it through it without accomplishing much of anything. *Sigh*. I did start making a shirt for Dave for him to wear to the big family wedding this weekend, but I barely got it more than cut out before I ran out of time. Tomorrow my day is packed solid so I don't have time to do it then, and then we leave Thursday. Guess he'll just have to wear an old one.